The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for reducing stress in a human subject through the production of soothing audio, visual and other sensory effects.
In today's society, men and women live active and often very stressful lives People frequently fail to take the time to relax and, as a result, stress builds up without release causing a variety of physiological and psychological problems. Research has shown that stress can be reduced through the alteration of brain wave patterns which the brain utilizes in order to function. Stimuli such as sound and light can affect and actually alter the flow of these brain wave patterns.
Biofeedback systems are well known in the art for use in detecting levels of stress in subjects and providing the appropriate stimuli to affect and alter the flow of brain wave patterns The biofeedback system monitors and processes bioelectrical signals generated in specific topological regions of a subject's nervous system and produces a sensory stimulus if the system detects the presence or absence of certain characteristics in the signal's wave form patterns. These characteristics may be correlated with a certain desired condition of the subject's nervous system. The sensory stimulus provided by the biofeedback system, typically an audio or visual stimulus, or combination thereof, is fed back to the subject which associates the presence of the stimulus with the goal of achieving the desired condition of its nervous system. By responding to the stimulus, the subject can be trained to control the waveform patterns of the monitored bioelectrical signals and thereby control his or her own nervous system. Such a system is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,616 to Ross.
Because biofeedback devices operate on the basis of internal stimuli, that is, stimuli produced in response to bioelectrical signals generated by the subject, the success of the true biofeedback device is dependent upon a subject attempting to consciously control his or her state of stress. Many people cannot effect such control over their involuntary nervous systems. In addition, biofeedback systems are traditionally quite expensive and require complex equipment.
Prior art devices have attempted to overcome these drawbacks by producing a state of mental harmonization or relaxation in a subject without detecting the subject's state of stress, that is, through the use of a program of external stimuli. In the apparatus and method shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,534 to Stiegler, the subject wears a specially designed helmet through which a programmed combination of lights, colors, words and music is transmitted. U.S. Pat. No. 4,315,502 to Gorges illustrates another type of device for stimulating brain function which does not rely upon a subject's internal stimulus. The device provides stimulation and coordination of whole brain wave function through a combined source of pulsating light in an eye covering mask which locates the light sources adjacent the left and right eyes of a subject and an audio headset which applies sound signals to the left and right ears of the subject. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,826,250 to Adams and 4,640,266 to Levy show systems providing an enclosed chamber in which the subject sits while various stimuli are provided through loudspeakers or on visual displays. However, because none of the above-mentioned systems provide a stress detection method, the stimuli cannot be tailored to a subject's changing state of stress and individual needs.
There is a need for an improved method and apparatus for reducing physiological and psychological stress in people which is readily available to the general public at an affordable cost, which is computer-controllable, which exposes the subject to a fully choreographed stress reduction session, which detects the subject's state of stress and modifies the session in response to any changes, and which effectively reduces stress in the subject without the requirement that the subject effect control over his or her involuntary nervous system.